[_Sitting upright again._] That’s just what I cannot possibly grasp or understand. I have never led a dissipated life—never, in any respect. You mustn’t believe that of me, mother! I’ve never done that. MRS. ALVING. I am sure you haven’t, Oswald. OSWALD. And yet this has come upon me just the same—this awful misfortune! MRS. ALVING. Oh, but it will pass over, my dear, blessëd boy. It’s nothing but over-work. Trust me, I am right. OSWALD. [_Sadly._] I thought so too, at first; but it isn’t so. MRS. ALVING. Tell me everything, from beginning to end. OSWALD. Yes, I will. MRS. ALVING. When did you first notice it? OSWALD. It was directly after I had been home last time, and had got back to Paris again. I began to feel the most violent pains in my head—chiefly in the back of my head, they seemed to come. It was as though a tight iron ring was being screwed round my neck and upwards. MRS. ALVING. Well, and then? OSWALD. At first I thought it was nothing but the ordinary headache I had been so plagued with while I was growing up—— MRS. ALVING. Yes, yes—— OSWALD. But it wasn’t that. I soon found that out. I couldn’t work any more. I wanted to begin upon a big new picture, but my powers seemed to fail me; all my strength was crippled; I could form no definite images; everything swam before me—whirling round and round. Oh, it was an awful state! At last I sent for a doctor—and from him I learned the truth. MRS. ALVING. How do you mean? OSWALD. He was one of the first doctors in Paris. I told him my symptoms; and then he set to work asking me a string of questions which I thought had nothing to do with the matter. I couldn’t imagine what the man was after—— MRS. ALVING. Well? OSWALD. At last he said: “There has been something worm-eaten in you from your birth.” He used that very word—_vermoulu_. MRS. ALVING. [_Breathlessly._] What did he mean by that? OSWALD. I didn’t understand either, and begged him to explain himself more clearly. And then the old cynic said—[_Clenching his fist_] Oh——! MRS. ALVING. What did he say? OSWALD. He said, “The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children.” MRS. ALVING. [_Rising slowly._] The sins of the fathers——! OSWALD. I very nearly struck him in the face—— MRS. ALVING.